IP Telephony, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), is a technology that makes it possible to have a voice conversation over a dedicated IP network, such as the Internet, instead of a dedicated voice transmission line.
Depending on the service, one way to place a VOIP call is to employ specialized phones, sometimes called IP Phones, or VOIP phones, that may look like a normal phone. Such VOIP phones may connect to the network through an RJ-45 connector, or operate through a wireless connection.
Because VOIP make it possible to have voice conversations over IP networks, VOIP allows for a cost effective alternative to the traditional public switched telephone networks (PSTNs). Because of its relatively lower costs and ease of use, VOIP phone services have been rapidly increasing in popularity. With such an increase in popularity, there has been an increased desire to be able to integrate at least some of the VOIP features with a variety of other communication services.
However, because IP does not by default provide any mechanism to ensure that data packets are delivered in sequential order, or provide any quality of service guarantees, many implementations of VOIP face problems dealing with latency and/or possible data integrity issues. Another problem with at least some of the VOIP implementations is that they may be unable to provide VOIP traffic through firewalls, network address translation (NAT) devices, and the like. Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.